A pretty simple yet oozing with charm game that never overstays its welcome.
It both visually and (mostly) gameplay wise holds up incredibly well, especially for a game released in 1997. I think in terms of just presentation alone it easily knocks most of its original Playstation peers out of the park. From the very bright, warm, colorful aesthetic that reminds me a lot of the Miyazaki films, and to the often clever ways the developers mix and match 3D models with 2D sprites for the graphics. Compared to the more simplified cartoonish aesthetic of Classic Mega Man, to the modernized futuristic edge of the X series, and so on, this stands out for having probably my favorite “look and feel” of any Mega Man series.
It's weird to label this as an “RPG” because whatever elements it has are pretty light and almost superficial to what’s just a 3D running gun shooter with tricky tank controls. The amount of grinding you have to do to get the best weapons and armor is just insane in a game like this. Maybe if the enemies had a higher drop rate or if the dungeons were a bit more experimentally designed (which is weird considering Mega Man is universally known to have really specialized level design) then this could’ve felt a more rewarding effort worth taking. In my playthrough I didn’t really need to try this until the last boss of the game which I loved for how Kingdom Hearts-ish it was designed.
Also apparently this game had sidequests?? I never really bothered with that many of the NPCs to really do much of these, besides the game show and funding to rebuild the city after it got wasted in some battles. On top of that there’s apparently this hidden morality system which exists to only turn your suit darker????
Overall, a pretty great game. Tron Bonne Stans rise up.
It both visually and (mostly) gameplay wise holds up incredibly well, especially for a game released in 1997. I think in terms of just presentation alone it easily knocks most of its original Playstation peers out of the park. From the very bright, warm, colorful aesthetic that reminds me a lot of the Miyazaki films, and to the often clever ways the developers mix and match 3D models with 2D sprites for the graphics. Compared to the more simplified cartoonish aesthetic of Classic Mega Man, to the modernized futuristic edge of the X series, and so on, this stands out for having probably my favorite “look and feel” of any Mega Man series.
It's weird to label this as an “RPG” because whatever elements it has are pretty light and almost superficial to what’s just a 3D running gun shooter with tricky tank controls. The amount of grinding you have to do to get the best weapons and armor is just insane in a game like this. Maybe if the enemies had a higher drop rate or if the dungeons were a bit more experimentally designed (which is weird considering Mega Man is universally known to have really specialized level design) then this could’ve felt a more rewarding effort worth taking. In my playthrough I didn’t really need to try this until the last boss of the game which I loved for how Kingdom Hearts-ish it was designed.
Also apparently this game had sidequests?? I never really bothered with that many of the NPCs to really do much of these, besides the game show and funding to rebuild the city after it got wasted in some battles. On top of that there’s apparently this hidden morality system which exists to only turn your suit darker????
Overall, a pretty great game. Tron Bonne Stans rise up.